Your Presidential Candidates on Drugs, Part One: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney speaking to supporters at a grassroots early voting rally in Mesa, Arizona, February 13, 2012. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Each major presidential candidate has a lot to say about their positions on health care, jobs and foreign policy, but one crucial issue is missing from the debate: drugs and America's seemingly never-ending war on drugs. At a time when nearly half of federal inmates are drug offenders and 50 percent of Americans now favor legalizing marijuana, reform advocates say politicians are more out of step with voters on drug policy than any other issue. Candidates have largely ignored drug policy on the campaign trail, and recent online videos show several candidates, including President Obama, dodging the issue. During the next week, Truthout will fill the information void with an in-depth look at each major presidential candidate's positions and track records on drugs and the drugs war, starting with Mitt Romney.

In January, a group of activists with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) attended campaign events in New Hampshire. Armed with video cameras and some simple questions about drugs and the drug war, the activists attempted to put drug policy on the campaign agenda by confronting each Republican candidate to find out where they truly stand. No candidate was more elusive than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"Romney is so incredibly scripted, it's really horrifying," said Irina Alexander, an SSDP board member who asked the candidates about drugs. "With Romney especially, he just didn't even know what to say. When I would somehow slip in there and get a question in, he would avoid the question, or stumble or say something that didn't answer the question at all."

When Alexander asked Romney if he was in favor of arresting medical marijuana patients, Romney apparently misheard her at first, and then said, "I'm in favor of having the law not allow legal marijuana."

When Alexander asked Romney if the drug war was working, Romney said it's "a long question" that could not be answered on the spot (he was walking a photo line) and told her to check out his web site.

Romney's web site does not have any information on domestic drug policy, and a 43-page white paper his foreign policy platform posted online devotes only two paragraphs to vague plans for expanding international cooperation to combat narco-terrorists and drug cartels in Latin America.

SSDP confronted Romney again, this time asking if "we are winning or losing the drug war in Mexico?" Romney did not answer the question, but said, "We got to stop the demand here in this country."

In his few campaign statements on the topic, Romney has blamed domestic drug users for contributing to the international drug war that has claimed at least 45,515 lives in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared a war on drug cartels five years ago.

"I hope they understand, that if they take one of these drugs that are being smuggled into this country, that they're partially responsible for deaths," Romney said. "I want them to understand that tens of thousands of people are being killed by virtue of drug use in this country ... If I am president, I will campaign in a very aggressive way to our young people - stop taking drugs because you are killing people."

Federal officials estimated in 2009 that 21.8 million Americans are regular drug users, with marijuana being a vast majority of user's substance of choice. That's a lot of people to convince that quitting drugs will save lives in other countries like Mexico, where economic inequality, violent gangs and a corrupt justice system is often blamed for the rampant drug violence.

Romney's "An American Century" white paper on foreign policy makes vague proposals to ramp up the drug war. If elected, Romney promises to create the Hemispheric Joint Task Force on Crime and Terrorism, which would coordinate intelligence and enforcement among all regional allies. (Romney's plan for Latin America also includes a broad campaign that would promote globalized free trade and "draw a stark contrast between free enterprise and the ills of the authoritarian socialist model offered by Cuba and Venezuela," suggesting that Romney's "regional allies" may only include those countries that accept trade agreements with the US.)

International leaders such as former Secretary of State George Shultz, former UN Secretary Kofi Annan and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo joined Gaviria on the global drug commission, which asked countries like the US to focus on decriminalization and drug treatment instead of fighting violent cartels and creating demand with prohibition.

"Now is the time to break the taboo on discussion of all drug policy options, including alternatives to drug prohibition," Gaviria said.

Your Presidential Candidates on Drugs, Part One: Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney speaking to supporters at a grassroots early voting rally in Mesa, Arizona, February 13, 2012. (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Each major presidential candidate has a lot to say about their positions on health care, jobs and foreign policy, but one crucial issue is missing from the debate: drugs and America's seemingly never-ending war on drugs. At a time when nearly half of federal inmates are drug offenders and 50 percent of Americans now favor legalizing marijuana, reform advocates say politicians are more out of step with voters on drug policy than any other issue. Candidates have largely ignored drug policy on the campaign trail, and recent online videos show several candidates, including President Obama, dodging the issue. During the next week, Truthout will fill the information void with an in-depth look at each major presidential candidate's positions and track records on drugs and the drugs war, starting with Mitt Romney.

In January, a group of activists with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) attended campaign events in New Hampshire. Armed with video cameras and some simple questions about drugs and the drug war, the activists attempted to put drug policy on the campaign agenda by confronting each Republican candidate to find out where they truly stand. No candidate was more elusive than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"Romney is so incredibly scripted, it's really horrifying," said Irina Alexander, an SSDP board member who asked the candidates about drugs. "With Romney especially, he just didn't even know what to say. When I would somehow slip in there and get a question in, he would avoid the question, or stumble or say something that didn't answer the question at all."

When Alexander asked Romney if he was in favor of arresting medical marijuana patients, Romney apparently misheard her at first, and then said, "I'm in favor of having the law not allow legal marijuana."

When Alexander asked Romney if the drug war was working, Romney said it's "a long question" that could not be answered on the spot (he was walking a photo line) and told her to check out his web site.

Romney's web site does not have any information on domestic drug policy, and a 43-page white paper his foreign policy platform posted online devotes only two paragraphs to vague plans for expanding international cooperation to combat narco-terrorists and drug cartels in Latin America.

SSDP confronted Romney again, this time asking if "we are winning or losing the drug war in Mexico?" Romney did not answer the question, but said, "We got to stop the demand here in this country."

In his few campaign statements on the topic, Romney has blamed domestic drug users for contributing to the international drug war that has claimed at least 45,515 lives in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon declared a war on drug cartels five years ago.

"I hope they understand, that if they take one of these drugs that are being smuggled into this country, that they're partially responsible for deaths," Romney said. "I want them to understand that tens of thousands of people are being killed by virtue of drug use in this country ... If I am president, I will campaign in a very aggressive way to our young people - stop taking drugs because you are killing people."

Federal officials estimated in 2009 that 21.8 million Americans are regular drug users, with marijuana being a vast majority of user's substance of choice. That's a lot of people to convince that quitting drugs will save lives in other countries like Mexico, where economic inequality, violent gangs and a corrupt justice system is often blamed for the rampant drug violence.

Romney's "An American Century" white paper on foreign policy makes vague proposals to ramp up the drug war. If elected, Romney promises to create the Hemispheric Joint Task Force on Crime and Terrorism, which would coordinate intelligence and enforcement among all regional allies. (Romney's plan for Latin America also includes a broad campaign that would promote globalized free trade and "draw a stark contrast between free enterprise and the ills of the authoritarian socialist model offered by Cuba and Venezuela," suggesting that Romney's "regional allies" may only include those countries that accept trade agreements with the US.)

International leaders such as former Secretary of State George Shultz, former UN Secretary Kofi Annan and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo joined Gaviria on the global drug commission, which asked countries like the US to focus on decriminalization and drug treatment instead of fighting violent cartels and creating demand with prohibition.

"Now is the time to break the taboo on discussion of all drug policy options, including alternatives to drug prohibition," Gaviria said.